The Drivers of Agriculture Insurance in Asia, Part I: Introduction: Greater demands are being placed on Asia’s agricultural sector as the region’s rapidly changing economies and their increasingly affluent populations seek to boost living standards. This, in turn, will fuel the development of insurance products necessary to underpin the growth in agriculture.

2014 Tropical Cyclone Landfall Predictions: A recent study shows it is possible to use a regional climate model to more accurately predict the number of tropical cyclone formations compared to predictions based solely on a global climate model.

Catastrophe Bond Outlook for 2014:The growing influence of alternative markets capacity is pressuring traditional reinsurers’ business model and challenging them to compete against a model with lower-cost of capital that continues to enter the reinsurance market. Most reinsurance companies have responded to the challenge by leveraging their incumbent status on reinsurance programs, offering similar or better terms and similar or reduced pricing. Particularly, traditional players are emphasizing their ability to efficiently provide reinstatements, which are seen by many as a critical part of core reinsurance programs, particularly for working reinsurance layers. Traditional players are also hedging their bets and creating their own capital markets divisions to attract, manage and utilize capital from third-party sources whether in the form of fund management, managed accounts or sidecars.

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